Competing Road Plans Tie Up Officials

October 06, 1989|By DAVID LERMAN Staff Writer

WILLIAMSBURG — An informal city proposal to make John Tyler Highway a dead-end run has drawn protests from James City residents and nearby doctors, who say such a move would tie up traffic and block access to a medical complex for emergency vehicles.

City officials proposed the dead end as an alternative to an unwelcome state plan to connect Strawberry Plains Road to Berkeley Lane at John Tyler. When Route 199 is extended north to Interstate 64, state officials say, Strawberry Plains will no longer be able to feed into its current intersection with John Tyler.

John Tyler Highway is known as Route 5 outside the city limits, but Route 5 winds through the city on other roads in an effort to divert commuter traffic.

Residents of the Walnut Hills area oppose the realignment of Strawberry Plains because they think commuters would cut through their narrow, residential streets to reach Jamestown Road.

The alternative city plan, which would realign Strawberry Plains only marginally to the east and bring John Tyler to a dead end near Berkeley Lane, has garnered its own share of critics.

Dr. Roger Jones, a physician at the Governor Berkeley Professional Center on John Tyler, said doctors fear that a cul-de-sac on John Tyler would block emergency access of fire trucks and rescue squads coming from the city to the complex.

"To me it makes absolutely no sense at all," said Jones, who lives in Walnut Hills. "It makes direct access from Williamsburg to Governor Berkeley Professional Center impossible. I think it penalizes the rest of the people in the county, too."

Jones said the state should realign Strawberry Plains as it had planned but bring Berkeley Lane to a dead end to avoid the cut-through traffic feared by residents.

While Jones and other doctors oppose the city's dead-end plan, they also opposed an earlier state plan to bring Strawberry Plains to a dead end, which would have avoided any need to realign the road and create new traffic patterns. Doctors persuaded the state to abandon that, saying it would lengthen the travel time from the professional center to Williamsburg Community Hospital.

Jones said he is considering mounting a petition drive to stop the city plan.

"I think that's not a good idea at all to close a major highway going into the city," said James City Supervisor Jack D. Edwards, whose district borders the affected area. "I think it poses a very large problem. There's got to be a better solution than that one."

Williamsburg Vice Mayor Mary Lee Darling, who lives on Berkeley Lane, said she supports the dead-end alternative because it would prevent cut-through traffic. She said the City Council may endorse the plan Oct. 12.

The dispute could put the Virginia Department of Transportation in the position of having to side with either the county or the city in selecting a final road plan.

Resident engineer Frank Hall said the state's official position continues to be the realignment of Strawberry Plains Road to Berkeley Lane. He said a final decision may not be made for several months.

Louis Catron, chairman of the Walnut Hills-Berkeley Hills Neighborhood Association, which represents about 90 homes, said his group welcomes the prospect of bringing John Tyler Highway to a dead end and forcing commuters onto Route 199.

"We favor that strongly," Catron said. Referring to the county, he added, "I'm not unsympathetic to their concerns, but the need to protect residential neighborhoods is becoming extremely significant."

Although there is no funding in sight to build the Route 199 extension down to Route 5 and realign Strawberry Plains Road, a design plan must be approved by the Commonwealth Transportation Board before construction can begin on the funded portion of Route 199 in York County, Hall said.